Falcon 9 lifts off from Vandenberg for U.S. Space Force's USSF-385 mission

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 7 a.m. PDT Saturday on the U.S. Space Force’s USSF-385 mission. At the customer’s request, its payload and second stage were not shown; booster B1096 landed on a Pacific drone ship after its 10th flight.

The mission is believed to be the third in a series of flights to send satellites based on Starshield, SpaceX’s government-use version of Starlink. Space Flight Now reported that a similar Sept. 17 mission, USSF-259, went to a different orbit and appeared to carry 17 satellites.